The proposed projects for this program include research efforts in the areas of environmental pollution, toxicology, virology, parasitology, textile biochemistry and cancer research. Most of the needed pieces of equipment for the proposed works are already available and so are the availabilities of research spaces (facilities). The projects also involve research training and improved participation of a number of our graduate and undergraduate students. Through all of the proposed projects we intend to increase the number of minorities going into the mainstream of biomedical research as a career; improve the expertise and capabilities of the principal investigators to enable them to get into mainstream biomedical research and become very competitive in applying for Federal grants in this area of research. We also intend to continue our objective of increasing and improving the biomedical research capabilities of our institution through the MBS program.